Language Sanskrit:
The only context-free natural language in the world, mother of all
Indo-European languages.

Revolution of earth
around the Sun as calculated by Bhaskaracharya (5AD) 365.258756484 days.

Chess (Shataranja or
AshtaPada) was invented in India.

Quotes on India

Albert Einstein :
"We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without
which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made."

Mark Twain : "India
is, the cradle of the human race,the birthplace of human speech,the mother
of history,the grandmother of legend,and the great grand mother of tradition.
our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of
man are treasured up in India only.

Hu Shih, former
Ambassador of China to USA said:India conquered and dominated China
culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier
across her border.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee - British HistorianIt is already becoming clear that a chapter
which has a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is
not to end in the self-destruction of the human race ... At this supremely
dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for Mankind is the
Indian Way.

People

Population
: 960Million

Languages
: Roughly 24 major languages. Hindi is the National Language spoken by the
majority of people. Almost all indian languages are derivatives of
Sanskrit, an ancient language still taught in many of the schools.

INDIA
: From the eyes of an Indian

It is a challange to describe india in words, it is too
complicated but worth trying. I would thus try my best to draw a rough
picture of this nation.
Planning to visit India,
think twice , you got to be really tough and an adventurist. It can be a
nightmare too. Indeed no one can understand india by merely visiting it for few
weeks, you should plan for months along with a first aid box. No , I don't mean
to scare you to death but it's different, just like the other side of a coin.
You can't compare things which are inherently different, the history, culture,
spirituality and the society.
India is the second most
populated country, next to china but has more population density, the root of
all the chaos! There is no room for individuality outside the four walls of
your home, try going to a shopping mall looking too fancy. You might feel being
scanned by a million eyes , everyone giving a funny look at you. Even if you
were a non believer, it wouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes and you would be
praying to god for a rescue helicopter. While roaming on streets, just
follow your instincts, no need to say hi! to anyone just because he was staring
at you or you just happened to block his way. People in India say Hi to
someone they know or they would like to talk to, it is an initiator of
conversation. Don't feel bad because people stare at you in public, it's
normal for everyone and especially if you look different.
One of the toughest thing in India
is to be alone, it's next to impossible unless you are willing to lock yourself
in a room. Try travelling in a public transportation, you will find
people discussing everything from world politics to the current price of
milk. Indeed many times it's very entertaining and the journey time just
dilates. I had travelled more than 1800 miles in a single train for
nearly 40 hours but never felt bored, it used to be a family environment within
few hours, people exchanging their food, playing games , reading each others
magzines etc. A person who tries to be too much in himself is not
much acceptable to society, but as I said you shouldn't expect your personal
freedom when you are exposed to the society. Move with the crowd but with
caution, it's like a phychological game, you have to identify the nature of a
person by his looks, actions etc and then only move forward, otherwise you
might land up in a lot of trouble also. There are all kinds of people, helpful,
kind hearted and also cheats.
When it comes to cleanliness, things are quite
dirty, i mean roads , streets etc are not thoroughly cleaned everyday. Also
there is a lot of heat and dust. If you are in a big city like Delhi, you might
be inhaling the pollution worth 20 cigarettes everyday. The best litmus test
for pollution is the dirt on your shirt collar, don't forget to wash it every
evening. To stay healthy in India, here are the tips (a) don't eat outside too
much, so what should you eat, well I would leave it to you, do some R & D...
(b) Take bath atleast once in a day , if possible twice. (c) Carry your own
water, it takes time to adjust to the tap water but most of the indians have a
tough immune system for all these things.
Driving in
India is like playing a video game with the difference that you are actually in
it! The rules of the game are fairly simple (a) You should always head towards
your destination. (b) You can drive in any direction or lane as long as you do
not hit anyone. (c) You can break any rule as long as it is safe to do so and
there is no traffic police around. (d) To determine the right of way,
follow a simple rule, the driver of the biggest vehicle has the right of
way. (e) Horns are used for establishing communication between drivers
on road. It works similar to morse code. Techincally your vehicle might
be running on gas but practically it's the honk that moves it forward. Despite
of all these India has very less fatal accidents as compared to other
countries. The reason is simple , you can do all kinds of zig-zag motions on
road but can never attain a killer speed, the roads and traffic are the natural
speed limiters.
Geographically, one can find all kinds of variations, on one end there is great
himalayan ranges and other hand there is huge desert. The climate varies from
region to region, north is colder while south is hot, there is a place in
north-east which records world's highest rainfall and there are deserts in
rajasthan with virtually no rainfall. Almost every state has a different
language and culture and yet they are all indians, a unity in diversity.
An indian society
can be easily divided in three categories, (a) A Poor class , mostly
uneducated (b) Middle class,mostly highly educated (c) Rich class, usually
education is for maintaining status in society. But yet in general , the
society is very conservative. Majority of the marriages in India are still
arranged marriages, i.e the parents choose the bride/bridegroom. Love marriages
are still very rare though are getting some acceptance in big cities.
Majority of
people in India are Vegitarian, even those who do eat meat, the primary food is
still vegitarian. Surprisingly many people in West relate vegitarianism to
poverty. That might have been a reason for Hitler to be a vegitarian but it's
incorrect with respect to India, infact stuffs like beaf are extremely cheap in
india, though it's sale is banned. Vegitarianism in India is linked to religion
and the culture of India. Even though on average, hindu's don't eat meat
but then it varies according to one's sect. Hinduism could be subdivided into
three sects, Vaishnavs ( those who believe in lord Vishnu,God of preservation )
; Shakt's ( Those who believe in Gods of Energy and power) and lastly Shavs (
Those who believe in lord Shiva, the destroyer of evil). Amoungst all these
only Vaishnav's are pure vegitarians. It is interesting to know why
Hindu's are vegitarians, the ancient indians were not vegitarians , It
was the philoisophy of Jainism (Lord Mahavira , 600BC) which influenced the
people of the region. Mahavira first taught the concept of
non-violence or having pity on life forms. So he called for sacrificing
one's desire for eating meat.
There is another concept in hinduism
which classifies food to a person's nature. It divides the instincts of life
forms into two categories (a) Peaceful, innocent (b) Violent, aggressive.
Usually all carnivorous creatures are classified as aggressive, reason being
simple, they have to kill their prey and have to be rapid moving. Whereas all
herbivorous creatures are peaceful. Similary it's a myth in hinduism that
eating meat induces violent tendicies in human beings too which is not
something to appreciate.
In India , never ask for Beef in any
restaraunt, especially if it one that belongs to a hindu. Cow is a sacred
animal worshiped by hindus, the very idea of killing it might evoke
unfavourable responses. Many people find this stupid , but there is hardly
anything in hinduism without any explanation. Indeed the term worship
itself has a different meaning in hindu texts. Worship is
considered more as a means of paying repect than reverence paid to a
divine being, and respect can be paid to anyone. Since cow used to be a
domestic animal, represents innocence , peace , it is the animal who sacrifices
it's milk for man, hence it is worthy of all respect from man. Can anyone
kill and eat his own pet?